


Wonderful Patchwork Garbage

by NorthernGreen



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Cronus Being Cronus, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Humanstuck, I Don't Know What I'm Fucking Doing Anymore, I Tried, I have no idea where this is going, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, My First Fanfic, idk - Freeform, maybe smut???, self indulgent fic, what is happening
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 19:55:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12614228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernGreen/pseuds/NorthernGreen
Summary: Mituna Captor is an alp. Kurloz Makara and Cronus Ampora are hunters. I think y'all know where I'm going with this.





	1. Chapter 1

The sun starts rising over a sleepy town by a large lake, a bird chirping somewhere before it was abruptly cut off. There seemed to be an air of mystery around this town, snow seeming to blanket secrets and trees. The lake was unfrozen, being fueled by a natural hot spring, and near its edge, you find the most amazing creatures man only seemed to dream about. If one were lucky, one might even find themselves witnessing the selkies coming out of the lake, shedding their seal skin in an almost hypnotising manner. Or, watching as the mermaids started to perch upon their rocks to being their morning ritual of singing and brushing their hair. Or perhaps, if you were really lucky- and paying attention- you could see all the little water spirits zipping through the water, heading back to their nests for the day.

However, if one were to look away from the lake, and into the woods surrounding it, you would find an even better sort of creatures. Dragons laying on rocks to warm up with the sun, werewolves turning into their human selves after a night on the hunt, deadly nightshade weighing their bushes down as the atomies that eat it start to climb down from their beautiful nests. The druids still in their winter slumber, great massive oaks and redwoods that have stood for centuries still looking as majestic as they did in the summer. Hybsils were loading up their arrows covered in their sleeping potion that would cause many a creature (fiend or prey) to sleep for hours.

After going through the woods, one might arrive at that sleepy little town, just waking up. The baker already having been up, making his usual loves of bread. The mailman gathering the papers for the newsboy to toss out, like every morning. This would be no different than any other morning, humans still blissfully oblivious to the creatures that lived next to them, right under their noses.

Mituna walked out of his apartment, grinning, beanie safely on his head. All his neighbors, who never saw him without the hat, would probably say that it was just an anxiety thing, or a weird fashion statement. Mituna would just grin and agree to whatever was said, to an extent. Most people ignored his weird habits and ticks, figuring it was just a part of him, and who were they to judge a young man such as he?

However, his beanie was a lot more important than that. He was an alp, or as some people would more commonly recognize him as, a Walrider. Goddamn Outlast bullshit. The game was so off, he doesn't even know where they got their lore. A lot of the lore was wrong, actually. Especially the whole thing about drinking blood from dudes nipples, that's just gross. He doesn't know where that blood has been, and he wouldn't drink it even if he did.

As an alp, his source of power came from his hat, or a tarnkappe whatever the fuck. He had had a few throughout the years, but lately, he's been particularly attached to his yellow beanie. Other than storing all his alp power shit (He didn't really know how it worked, just that it did), it made him feel safe, and running the pads of his fingers over the threads was soothing. 

Alps, something that most people don't realize exist, were some pretty weird creatures, if he did say so himself. They were able to transform to little moths, dogs, horses, bears, cats, humans, and could also turn into this pretty cool black smoke. He liked staying in his human form though, even when there was no one around, because he personally thought that the bright blond hair looked really rad, and so did his eyes. One red, one blue, all natural. He liked it better than his alp form, at least. His ears get all long and pointy, as do his teeth, and his skin goes all gray. His irises would shrink, until they look like goats pupils, and his eyes would get all bright. It wasn't fun. Although, sometimes, when he was calm and happy, even when he would take the beanie off, he could keep most of it from bothering him all that much. The one thing he couldn't shove down was the ears, and it pissed him off. He had met a few other alps in his long 22 years on this Earth, and they were all able to keep whatever form they wished for around an hour without their tarnkappe, and he couldn't even keep his cool for 5 minutes. Seriously, it sucked so much. 

However, as superhero comics would say, great power comes with great responsibility, and every power has drawbacks. An alps was that they had to create nightmares. Without them, Mituna would probably die, or at least not be able to do the cool shapeshifting thing. So this cool thing that alps do, is they change into the cool black smoke thing, wander into someones home, and then go into a persons head and make them have a nightmare, then absorb that. It was a pretty rad life, except for when the people woke up, mid nightmare, and closed the door or window that he used to get in. That sucked, and he would be stuck until they opened up the door or window again. He could also make people have good dreams, but those weren't much fun, took longer, and didn't really give him anything, so he never did those. 

Honestly, Mituna was done with the whole 'Alp' thing, kinda envied humans who could go without creating nightmares, who could actually enjoy lemon flavoured things, who animals liked. But seeing as he didn't really know the lifespan of alps, whether they were immortal, mortal but slow aging, or just normal, ya know, _humanlike_ and shit, the only thing he could actually think of was death by hunters, but nah, that shit would suck. 

He shrugged out of his thoughts, which were starting to give him a headache. Even though he got them quite frequently, they always sucked, and he hasn't shown any tolerance to the pain they bring. He pulled on his backpack, which was specially bought from a company that made them fitted to skateboards, shoved in his skateboard in case he wanted to go skateboarding after his shift, and headed out to the arcade. He hopefully wouldn't have to stay that long, he had other shit to do, but he had bills to pay, so off he goes to his crappy job.

  


Meanwhile, across the country, there were two hunters heading to that very town, although, not for him. For something that was killing a fuckton of tourists in there. The one driving this 1965 Ford Fairlane was a certain hunter called Kurloz Makara, a man of Turkish descent, who was currently trying to ignore the attempts of the person in the passenger seat to find music. "Seriously, cat, wvhy the fuck don't you have havwe any groovwy music?" Asked a certain Cronus Ampora, scottish accent and speech impediment strong in his sentence. Kurloz just flips him off, and Cronus laughs at the familiarity of it, even though Kurloz scares the shit out of him most times. However, he was going through one of his 'selective mutism' phases, even though to Cronus, that just sounds like being a little bitch. 

He decides to roll down his window, placing a cigarette to his lips, even though he has no intention of lighting it. Just having something to dangle between his lips was pretty cool to him. He eventually zones out, just watching all the trees and signs zoom by, settling into a comfortable silence.

These two had been hunters for most of their lives, as their fathers, and probably their fathers before that had done. They had bonded when both of their fathers would leave them with 'hunter babysitters' as they called them. Really, they were just the wives and husbands of hunters, who didn't do good themselves, and would watch the community's children if they had month long hunts to go on. Long days, sometimes weeks of exploring woods and farms and new towns together, meeting up with children of fellow hunters. 

However, most of the other children left pretty quickly. Cronus and Kurloz were always there the longest, watching as the children cycled through, new friends and old, all eventually leaving, except for each other. And even if two kids hate each other, when they're the only things they can count on, they learn to get along best they can. Sure, they fought near constantly, but they had learned each others boundaries, knew how to keep each other from truly hating each other, knew which buttons to press to get them annoyed, but not hateful. 

It was kinda inevitable that they would get into a relationship, honestly. Hand holding when they were young turned into hugging when they were older which turned into kissing which turned into one hella weird relationship. 

Then, as their parents began to trust them more and more, taking them on hunts, letting them go individually, they stopped seeing each other. Oh sure, maybe once a year or so, their parents would be going after the same hunt or be in the same town, but other than that, they saw neither hide nor hair of each other. Hunters are good at covering themselves that way. 

Then, when they were both independent, they found each other again, about 6 months ago actually. And hunting with someone is better than hunting alone, they both said. Having someone to watch your back and all that shit. 

It took a while for them to get used to having each other around again, to waking up to another warm body in the bed. However, they still had their own responsibilities, things they needed to do alone, so they were often separated. Because of this, and the way they were raised, with nothing ever being constant and people constantly coming and going, they were both fine with an open relationship, though, Cronus took advantage of this more often then Kurloz did. 

He breathed out a sigh, before grabbing the newspaper from the back and flipping it open, seeing if reading over it again would provide any clues to what the fuck they were hunting down. Sure, people were dying, and sure, the local law enforcement was blaming it on wildlife, but they knew better, knew the signs. Still though, it didn't give them much, just a few shots of the victims before they died, the crime scene, and some information about the times, all that sort of stuff, but none of the gory details that they needed to succeed in identifying and killing whatever the fuck was behind these things. 

"Dude, I swvear to god, this is the middle of fucktowvn nowvhere, all the locals are gonna be total squares." He complains, to which Kurloz merely turns to him, seemingly no intent on breaking his vow of silence for however the fuck long, and smiles. He scrunches up his nose in reply, pulling a face, before settling into his seat, chewing on the end of a cigarette and reading. 

Soon enough, they had arrived at the small town, and after booking a few days in the cheapest motel they could find, decided to head out and see what they could find.

After asking around the police station, they found out that the bodies were technically unharmed, they all died with something internal, not external. It was confusing, yes, but at least it narrowed down the list of what they could be hunting.  
"Brother," Says Kurloz, voice rough from his few days of silence. Cronus jumps up with a little bit of shock, and fear, thinking maybe he pissed Kurloz off, although, he would never admit it, he's too cool and chill for something like that. "Now, I could be misunderstanding my thinkings I'm getting from my messiahs," Cronus rolled his eyes, but let Kurloz continue. "But I think it'd be for the motherfucking best if we went out separate ways for a few hours, see if we can get to the locals on a motherfucking personal level, ya feel me?"  
Cronus thinks for a second, before shrugging. "Sure, wvhatevwer cat, sounds cool." The thing they were hunting probably wasn't even all that dangerous, and even if it was, Cronus knew how to handle himself. "See ya." He says with a wave, walking off. 

After walking through a few stores, he arrives at an arcade, and after thinking for a bit, decides to enter. Maybe some kids saw something, he doesn't know, but honestly, he's just gonna be looking forward to chatting up any of the workers, that's always fun, and it sometimes even gets him laid! He had a few hours to kill, it was all so perfect! He walks in, hands in his front pockets, cigarette in his mouth, smirk on his lips as he looks to some blond dude wearing a bright yellow beanie. "Interesting fashion statement, my dude." He says with a grin, leaning on the counter. "Nowv howv much for your number?" He asks, tone indicating that he fully expected this line to work. 

The dude just looks up from his GameBoy that he was messing with, face scrunched up in confusion, because hey, he has no idea who the fuck this was, and most of the tourists who came in here were children. "Uh. F-fuckin," He stutters, the tips of his ears sharpening slightly in annoyance, but luckily his beanie is covering it. "Who're you?" 

"Cronus Ampora, nowv wvhat wvere your other twvo wvishes?" He asks, chuckling to himself, because holy fuck, that line was smooth!

Mituna just wrinkles his nose, but hey, this dude was kinda nice? Mostly because he was ever so slightly taller than him, which to Mituna, was a rarity, because he stood at a tall 6'1". But not that nice, this guys hair was greasy as fuck, and just looked gross. "C-care to guethth my name ya douche?" He doubts this dude was an actual customer, so he has no trouble cursing at him, but he guesses he'll talk to this dude for a while, anything to pass the hours. 

Cronus looks for a nametag, leering at Mituna and staring in a way that is probably not appropriate, when oh fuck no, Kurloz walks in, looking as if he was searching for Cronus, who stares at him questioningly, before smiling warmly at the dude behind the counter, because motherfuck, this lil dude was all bright and shit, it was delightful to look at. "Hey, my miraculous looking brother, you mind if I borrow my bro?" He says, voice drawling as he looks down at him. Dude was cute, what could he say?

Mituna stares at him, just generally very confused (which isn't new, but still), and nods, making a few questioning noises, but still. If they're still here and they get boring, he can just send them out for loitering. Kurloz smiles at him, paint immaculate, before placing a hand on Cronus's shoulder, bringing him to just outside of the store, before turning to him. "Now, did I just see you trying to chat up that cute lil motherfucker instead of finding out any info?" His tone was light, but still. He thought Cronus would at least be able to do this shit, cmon, he can't be the one doing all the work when all he wanted to do was lay back and smoke a bowl.

Cronus frowns, but honestly, he's not all that scared of Kurloz, his posture was all relaxed and slouched, not ramrod straight like it got when he was actually pissed, so Cronus wasn't worried. "He wvas cute, tell me you didn't see that cat." Wooo, rhymes. "Besidesss," He drawls, striking a small pose, looking very much like a dork, "If I get all close to him, maybe he'll start talking our talk, wvhaddya think?" To Cronus, there is no downside to this plan, because fuck yeah, getting all close to a cute dude seemed pretty chill to him.

Kurloz sighs, a long one, one that seems to exit from his entire body instead of just his mouth, as he looks Cronus up and down, trying to assess the likelihood of it succeeding, before looking through the window to the dude in the yellow beanie, who had whipped out some handheld gaming device, before looking back to Cronus, and in a soft voice, says "Alright."


	2. Maybe This Isn't Quite Garbage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio grow closer!

Cronus looks at Kurloz happily, face lighting up because fuck yeah, he just got permission to fuck around on the job! Do you know how hard that is? From Kurloz Makara? It's fucking amazing, it's gonna be so much fun. "On a few conditions." Says Kurloz, with a slight grin, which causes Cronus to groan dramatically, because ughhh, Kurloz got his hopes up for nothing, what a dick. Meanwhile, Kurloz was silently chuckling to himself, because woop motherfucking woop, that was very funny.

His shoulders lightly shake with laughter, before he calms himself, quite suddenly actually. It sorta freaks Cronus out how much control Kuroz has over his emotions, at least how he shows them. He can't really blame him though, it was...Difficult, to put it lightly, for Kurloz to relax, let emotions other than mirth and slight amusement actually show. It hadn't been like that when they were younger, no, but he's pretty sure something happened when he was off hunting with his father, Mr. Grant. Maybe he saw one too many deaths, maybe he killed one too many human looking things, whatever it was, Cronus was just happy with the few times he got to see how he was genuinely feeling, the few times Kurloz allowed himself to actually be seen. Sure, still far too few, but they were getting there, slowly but surely.

Cronus frowns at Kurloz dramatically, huffing, before shrugging and straightening up and rolling his shoulders a few times. "And vwhat vwould those be?" He's really not looking forward to any of these so called 'conditions', considering what Kurloz has done to him in the past. Locking him out of their motel room, replacing his hair gel with oil, you name it, Kurloz probably did it, eyes glinting with gaiety as he watched the aftermath of whatever he had done. Seriously, dude will do whatever he wants if it means he gets to laugh at something. 

"I just wanna see what goes on, don't worry, I'll let you work your 'magic'," He gently mocks, words rising up and down as easily as he breathed, corners of his mouth pulling up into a small smile that seemed so very at home on his tanned face. "Just remember, you're gettin' information as well as gettin' into his pants." Same gentle tone, same sweet smile that makes all the grandmas coo, but his eyes harden ever so slightly. Wow his dad sure must've drilled into his head the rules of the job, eh? Even though he was crazy, he was also crazy strict. 

"Wvovw," Cronus says, kinda insulted but also kind of aroused? Eh, his interest gets peaked easily, what can he say? Also, they've been really busy lately, and he just hasn't had time to destress much. Anyway, back to the conversation. "Dude, I'm a professional, ya dig?" He says, running a hand through his hair as he looks at him, before huffing out of his nose, and walking back in, determined to show Kurloz how much of a professional he was. "Ey. Dude." He says, leaning back on the counter as the beanie clad blond looks up from his gameboy. 

"Whatddya want?" He asks, face again scrunched up, because hey, even though this dude seems at least somewhat decent, his hair is just so gelled and greasy, ech. 

"Your number." He says with a grin and waggle of his eyebrows. "Or your time, if your shift ends soon, doll." Aw hell yeah, he's breaking out all the names now. He woulda loved to use 'Dame' because fuck you the 50's were a great time, but that is kinda exclusively used for feminine people, and the dude in front of him was in no way feminine. The best way to describe both Cronus and Mituna would probably be twunk:Both twink, and hunk. Like a werewolf, but better. And no, it does not mean an old twink. Well. At least, he hopes it doesn't. He should honestly google this shit, but no, he has to focus. 

Mituna stares at him, trying to guess whether he's serious or not, but he looks like he is? He's so fucking confused, and honestly, this dude seems like a creep, so he's just gonna shake his head a few times, curls shaking around his head. "You're groth." He says with a wrinkle of his nose.

Oh shit, it didn't work, fuck. He doesn't really have a backup plan, and he's trying to think of one when he jumps up at the hand on his shoulder, looking back to see the near totally silent Kurloz behind him, small smile on his face as he speaks. "Now, brother, what my associate is just trying to get at is, you seem pretty cool, and we're new in town, and ya seem pretty in tune, ya feel?" 

Mituna's face softens, losing it's scrunched up look, but he's still kinda confused as to what these guys want. "Thanks? I guethth..." He trails off, double checking that that is indeed a compliment.

Kurloz smiles, leaning on the counter, and continuing his dialogue with the shorter male. "So, you can see what he was getting at, okay? Not trying to be gross or anything, just trying to get our chill on with a cool dude." Cronus folds his arms behind him, looking out the window, trying to look cool and like he was thinking about philosophical things, or maybe about how to save the oceans or some shit, and not how great Kurloz's ass looked. Sure, he was refraining from straight on staring at it, but still. Damn, Makara. 

Mituna furrows his brows, trying to think whether he wanted to or not. Something about these dudes felt off, but they did call him a cool dude, and that is pretty accurate....With a shrug and a look over at the clock, he stutters out "F-fuckin, I thould be off already, 'm justtht waiting for some bitch so I'm not leaving the thtrore une-unni. Hhh." Words are hard. They're hard and no one understands. "Tho, if ya wanna jutht wait outside, then sure? We can 'ang out." He's still not sure what's happening, but whatever, his mood is pretty high right now, and that means for the next week or so he doesn't have to worry about consequences!

Kurloz smiles at him, but cmon. He's real good at reading people, seeing how they work, what they like. It was easy, so that's why he steps out of the shop, arm around Cronus, humming to himself. "Dude seems cool, seems like he knows the area." 

Cronus leans into him, because hey. He was 6'2, do you know how hard it was to find people taller than you, and willing to top you? Sure, it was nice to top sometimes as well, but still. 6'4" is something that is hard to say no too. He frowns, before saying in a kind of confused voice "Vwhy're you suddenly into this, dude?" He knew his own reasons, of course, but if it didn't really relate to one of Kurloz's already established interests, it didn't usually interest him. He wasn't one to try new things. sadly. "He don' seem all that smart." Truly, one of the only reasons Cronus was interested was not for his brain.

Kurloz just smiles, and holds a finger to the others lips, smiling it that stupid way he always did, like he knew something you didn't know and that you needed to shut up. Cronus frowns at him, opening his mouth to either say something or bite his finger, he hadn't decided yet, but he's interrupted by a loud floof bounding over to them, bright grin sharply contrasting the kind of hostile attitude back in the shop. "F-fckufuking, the bitch came, tho it's all rad now!" He says cheerfully, very glad and very happy all of a sudden that people want to hang out with him. Talk about a mood swing. 

Kurloz hums happily, still having his arm around Cronus, nodding. "Cool, brother." He says, tone soft and gentle. 

Cronus simply shrugs, because hey. This isn't gonna be a date, and so it's 99% impossible that he'll get laid. Welp. Maybe Kurloz will fuck him afterwards. He brightens up at that thought, and smiles at Mituna. "Sup, dude. Cmon, showv us the vworld, cmon." He encourages, getting Kurloz's arm off him to go to the ever so slightly shorter male. "Wvhat's cool round here?"

Mituna grins up at him, before starting to walk around, because hey. Even though he may suck sometimes, Mituna is like a sponge when it comes to information, so in a small town like the one he lives in, he knows almost everything about everything and everybody. Most people didn't tend to block their dreams, most people didn't know how, and you can learn a lot about people that way. "G-gotcha dude, okay so..." As he goes on to name off some of the buildings and the people that work in them, his hands wander up to pet at the edges of his beanie, running over the threads. What can he say, it was soothing as all hell. Almost as good as pulling his hair, but he can't really do that in public, at least not without looking like a weirdo. 

This behavior doesn't go unnoticed though, and Cronus looks at him, curious. "Da fuck you doin, chief?" He's tempted to snatch the beanie right off his head, honestly. He smiles, because hell yeah, he is definitely going to do that some time during this hangout. See if he's a natural blonde or something, and get a look at them eyes. He idly wonders what color they would be, but seeing as he was blond, probably blue? Eh, it doesn't really matter, but still, he's just a bit curious. 

Mituna stops, hands hovering at his sides. He hadn't even realized he was doing it, shit. "Nothin." He says, deciding to go on with his explanation of the majority of the buildings, occasionally going way too fast, and stuttering and cursing over his mistake. Whenever the cursing began to get excessive, Kurloz would simply smile, letting the other take his time, while Cronus would tap his feet impatiently.

Maybe this dude wasn't worth it, but it seems Kurloz was at least tolerating the dude, so it would seem Cronus was stuck here for the time being, however much it sucked. 

Mituna finally finishes his explanation, although, looking back on his words, he really didn't say all that much, but it wasn't all that bad, they hadn't been there for all that long anyway. Mituna just smiles at the dudes, shivering slightly, cheeks flushed in the cold weather. "Thoooo, whddy fuckin think? This placejthe prettty rad, r-right?" He thinks it is, anyway. There's a nice mix of magical creatures here, non murderous ones of course, and humans, so he doesn't have to worry most times about anything.

Well, there was the murders going around, but he had no idea who that could be. Most monsters still believed that there were at least a few hunters left, so they usually found some way to not kill people. They were wrong, of course, but only hunters knew that, not Mituna. 

Kurloz nods, not really having paid much attention to his words, instead just enjoying being able to zone out and not really have to participate in a conversation for a while. Oddly enough, despite the constant stutters and speed fluctuations, his voice was strangely steady, kinda making Kurloz want to lay down for a while, maybe take a nap. It was nice, admittedly, but motherfucking strange as all hell. He decides to ignore it though, in favour of doing a small nod in the others direction.

Meanwhile, Cronus was busy chewing on a cigarette, deciding that yeah, while this dude was nice looking, he seemed like far too much work for what would probably turn out to only be a quick lay, and Cronus was already tired of him. He nods as well, saying "Yeah, chief, 'rad.'" He smirks on that word, cause seriously, who the fuck used rad? It wasn't even retro cool, the only retro cool word of that nature was 'groovy'. 

Kurloz shoots a bright grin at Cronus, while Mituna falters in his steps, stumbling a little bit, not really sure why anyone would make fun of the raddest word in the world. Seriously, it was so rad, what the fuck was he making fun of? Mituna feels a sharp hit of anger in his chest, emotions easily swayed as always, but manages to keep it down to a frown, and refrain from full on growling. 

Cronus is a little bit worried at the bright grin, after all, an amused Kurloz probably means that he's done something that Kurloz thinks was stupid, and that's usually not very swell, but he keeps going anyway. "Seriously, though, you hear bout those murders around here? Wvhaddya think of them, chief?" Okay, yes, he's just finally getting information, but mostly cause the longer he hangs around this dude, the more he finds him annoying, and wants to make him shut up. With his mouth or his fist, he wouldn't really care. 

Mituna blinks, cause that question kinda came out of nowhere, but he supposes that people traveling would know about recent fucking MURDERS in the place they were visiting. You think that would make them not visit, but eh, who is he to judge? "They fuckin stuuthuck, d-dude, what didja think I was gonna say?" Sure, he's not human, but that doesn't mean he was a monster. There was this sweet old lady in the apartment next to his that ended up with her face ripped off in the woods, how is he supposed to react? She made cookies and everything, and sometimes even gave him a few!

"Wvell, vwhat with all the commotion and everything, I guess you wvoulda gotten a bit more business, right?" He tries, but even Cronus knows he's failing right now, but you only fail if you stop, so he's gonna keep going.

Mituna is shocked into silence for a second, that some douchebag with stupid greasy hair would just come up here and say that to him. He sputters for a beat, before letting out a small snarl, not even caring that it didn't sound quite right, because fuck you mood swings are happening. "Fuck o-off ya cunt, it aint even my busithtiness, I get p-paid a fucking thet amount, you dhfggarbafuckwhorebit-," He cuts himself off as he starts breathing quite fast, unable to make words happen as he just sputters, pale face red, but not from the cold this time. 

"Wvell shit." Cronus says, kind of shocked. Sure, on his worse days he know he can be kind of a dick, but no one ever reacts like this. Maybe this dude lost someone close? No one named Mituna was mentioned in the newspaper though, and Cronus would remember, seeing how 'Tuna' isn't very often part of a name.

Mituna, now entirely done with this conversation, as well as hatching a plan for later that night, walks off, flipping Cronus off as he did so, because fuck that dude, how can someone be that much of a dick? 

Cronus just shrugs, before turning around, eyes closed, gigantic smile on his face, when he runs into the unmoving Kurloz, for once with a frown on his face, arms folded across his chest. 

It was at this moment Cronus knew: He fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, apologies for this taking so long, but what with the holidays and some illnesses, my writing has been slightly unmotivated. But thank you for all the kudos and the comments! 
> 
> And as always, I apologize for this being so shitty. Thank you for reading it anyway though, and Merry Christmas!


	3. Nope This is the Worst Trash Imaginable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit, this was a bad idea.

Mituna walks through the snow, shivering back to his apartment. He wasted valuable gaming time on that shit, the fucking dicks. He huffs, hands going up to try and rub warmth back into his bare arms while he makes his way back to his apartment.

He just. It was such a dick move, ya know? To say that shit about him. He's a monster, yeah, but he's not a monster. It's not his fault that he's like this, but he does do his best to be at least halfway decent. Course, that other half, he's a total dick, but still. He tries, and of course he's not an absolute horror. Ugh.

Luckily, he has a plan to get back at that dick! And to thank the tall dude that was next to him. He'll have to search for a while, see where they're chilling so he can get at them while they're sleeping, but honestly? It'll be worth it, just to see that dude freak the fuck out. There are some benefits to being an alp, after all, other than the whole shapeshifting thing.

He climbs the stairs to his apartment, throwing open the door, tossing himself onto the couch for several hours of gaming before he goes and fucks with those dudes. What? He has a lot of free time, so he might as well rage for a while.  
-

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Kurloz was standing there, staring at Cronus, for once without that omniscient smug smile tucked onto his face, just a small frown, and a middle finger raised in his direction. "Vwhat?" Cronus defends, arms spreading out as he huffs. "Just, trying to get info, ey chief?" He tries, doing his best to defend himself. "Ya knowv, this could just be because he thought you wvere a creep."

Kurloz just keeps flipping him off, leaving Cronus to dig this hole of his even deeper than before as he keeps talking, vaguely insulting Kurloz while he defends himself. "So wvhat, chief? Not my fault." By this point, Kurloz is fairly annoyed, which is saying something. He decides to just grab a squirming Cronus by the arm, despite the others protest, to their motel, Cronus hissing curses at him the entire time, even trying the whole 'oh poor me, poor me' schtick that Kurloz hadn't fallen for since they've been 10.

"Calm, bro, aint gonna have no harm coming to ya, just. Motherfuck, did you fuck that shit up." Kurloz chuckles, annoyance slowly fading. He's never been the type to get angry, only to make others pissed, but he does want to talk to him for a bit, then smoke, then pass out. What, they talked to that spazzy little shit for quite a while, suns getting it's set down in the sky.

"I did not!" He exclaims, frowning, but kinda relieved that Kurloz wasn't pissed. He's only seen him legitimately pissed a few times before, and holy fuck did that make him want to hide under his bed and pray for wizards and angels and magic to come save him. "Just, can vwe get back to the motel? Don't like being out wvhen vwe don't knowv wvhat vwe're dealing wvith." Holy fuck is his accent hard to speak with.

"Yeah yeah," Kurloz says, because he can't deny that he agrees with him, before rolling his shoulders, and motioning for Cronus to come walk next to him, seeing as they left the car at the motel, seeing as it was a pretty small town, and them doubting that they would use it.

Cronus moves alongside him, the two of them falling into step easily, being practically instinct at this point. Another part if this ritual was the silence. They always did this before bed, unless there was something absolutely needed, but for the most part, the first night in a town was spent in silence, the two of them sleeping shifts, making sure they weren't attacked in the night.

Soon enough, they had arrived at the shitty motel, Kurloz walking and throwing off his boots, opening another door to a room that stank if mildew, presumably the bathroom. Cronus's thoughts are confirmed when he hear the sound if water running, and god, Kurloz was such a shit that he wouldn't let Cronus's brush his teeth before bed. Although he was often call a 'prancy' by the other hunters for it, he had had good dental hygiene drilled into him from a young age, and seeing hunters teeth when they got older had convinced him of the benefits of having pearly whites.  
Seriously, shit was nasty.

Anyway, he stifles a yawn as he strips off his shirt, though, he keeps his pants on, and keeps his shies where he can easily slip them on if need be. Never killed anyone to be absolutely paranoid, ya know, especially if they have good reason to be. He ducks under the covers, wrinkling his nose at it, but hey, he's slept in worse. With a stretch and a yawn, his gunmetal blue eyes are closed, chest rising and falling steadily. 

Kurloz, after a bit, exits the shower with a cloud of steam coming off him. Ever since he was young, he's taken scalding hot showers, much to the confusion of others. He walks out, still drying his wild mane of hair that again, ever since he's been young, has been nigh uncontrollable. He sits at a chair in the corner, hair still dripping, but he doesn't really care, instead cracking open a book and reading, enjoying the silence. 

The two of them started this ritual when the two of them had nearly killed each other the 10th time, figuring that okay, yeah. they needed to take breaks from each other. Being on the road constantly doesn't exactly give you a lot of room to get away from each other, and so to keep from ripping each others throats out, they decided on this. Sure, it was weird at first, but it eventually gave them a sense of comfort.

Kurloz shifts in his seat, books spine making crackling noises as he turns the page, settling in for a nice night.  
-  
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a certain Mituna Captor is dicking around for a couple hours, but woo, it's around 4 am, no later than he would usually stay up, and he stands, stretching up, before relaxing down, shifting a little bit, before his body slowly melts down into a soft black smoke, rising up and circling around the ceiling. He didn't exactly like shifting, it wasn't painful, no, but it just felt odd. He could feel himself in every ounce of smoke, which was weird when you're only used to being solid. 

He exits out of his window, making sure that it stays open for him to come back to, because holy shit would it suck if he got stuck out of his apartment.

He hovers in the air for a moment, trying to reach out somewhat. See, each person, when dreaming, was like a light to him, and he would just kinda follow the light till he got a meal. However, he's looking for a specific person to feed off of, and so he stays in the air far longer than he usually would, passing from light to light, till he spots one that feels familiar. Not in the way that he's fed off of before, but one that he's met before. 

He heads over there, already feeling giddy because woooo, he's gonna get a meal, and revenge, all in one! He glances around the motel, making sure that there was an opening to the light in the room, and then he heads in, snickering under his breath as he sees a person shaped lump in a bed. Sure, the other one is empty, though it looks slept in, but Mituna doesn't care bout that, he's focusing on the lump, going over to sit on the persons chest, not even bothering to see if they were already having a nightmare, just diving right in, form now invisible to anyone who could possibly be looking in through a window or something. Honestly, Mituna doesn't know why he would ever need to go invisible, but it is pretty cool, so he stops thinking about it, instead just focusing his energy on the dude. Weird though, his light feels different than this afternoon. Huh. Weird. Whatever.

-  
Cronus settles back in his chair from the window he just opened. Seriously, fresh air is welcome to drive away the whole 'old motel' smell. He quickly flips through his phone, cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth as he zones out. It was his turn to be watch on, Kurloz was finally getting some sleep. Seriously, dude could go forever without sleep, shit was crazy. Sure, he progressively would get bitchier and bitchier, but still. Impressive. 

He sits there for a while, humming absentmindedly, because hell yeah, aspiring musicians for the fucking win! Sure, he's probably never gonna get to leave this life, but that doesn't stop him from playing when Kurloz is out and about, practicing some of his original songs. However, he's interrupted by Kurloz shifting around, which was odd, cause Kurloz usually slept like the dead. He looks up from his phone, brows furrowing at the faces Kurloz was making. Huh. Maybe nightmares? It wasn't uncommon, especially for himself, but still. Kurloz always seemed like he was outside of all that shit. He closes the window, then stands up, curious, walking over to Kurloz, who was shifting a lot now, breath uneven, as if he had some sort of weight on his chest.

He rubs his forehead, because shit, he doesn't know how to deal with this, but still. He doesn't like the way his face is contorting, so he pats his face once, two times, trying to get him to wake up in a nonviolent way. You don't fuck with sleeping hunters. "Dude, wvake up, getting nightmares or any a that shit?" He asks, hoping to wake him up. 

Kurloz shoots up, sweat drenching his face, opening his mouth, though, to speak or to scream, Cronus isn't sure, however, he's interrupted by a loud 'oof', and the sound of a crash onto the side of the bed. Both of them instantly stop, Cronus having drawn his gun, Kurloz his knife, because fuck off, no matter how 'protective' a gun is, he's not sleeping with that shit. Misfires, the safety switching off, the gun just randomly exploding. So many things that could end with his brains all over a shitty motel wall. 

Kurloz leans over the bed, knife pointing at whatever the fuck jut appeared, Cronus having trained his gun on it a while ago. Turns out their whole 'sleeping in shifts' thing actually turned out pretty good for them. Nice. 

Mituna stares up at them, beanie having slid back, though still on his head, curls framing his wide, mismatched eyes that were staring up at them, slight grin on his face. "Uh. Thup d-dudes." 

This was such a bad idea.


	4. Chapter 4

Mituna stares at up at the knife that was pointed at him, noticeably gulping. Can you really blame him though? It was a big knife, scary shit. Cronus steals a quick glance at Kurloz, just trying to make sure he's alright, but seeing the others gaze was still on the smaller male, he looked over there as well, face contorting into a glare once he realized who it was. "Kur, it's the dude from before, remember?" He asks, moving forward with his gun, till there was only about an arms length between the gun and Mituna's forehead.

Kurloz doesn't respond, instead trying to figure out what they should do with the dude, who's looking at the two of them with a scared look, when all of a sudden, he breaks into a big ol grin, prompting Cronus to switch the safety off his gun, when he disappears. Well, kinda disappears. Somehow the hat he was wearing is still there, and Kurloz and Cronus stare, when the hat starts to move. Just out of instinct, Cronus snatches the hat, confused out of his mind, when the dude shows up again, red hair now springing forth, looking far more scared and small than before, though, physically he looks generally the same.

However, some small and some large details change as soon as he pulls the hat off, other than the whole 'popping back into existence' thing. His ears, what they can see of them beneath the hair anyway, are both pointed and his eyes, holy fuck, his eyes. Scarred and different colours, the most striking thing about them is the pupil, how much it looks like a goats. All in all, a true motherfucking monster.

Well, they would think that, until the dude collapses to the floor, eyes never leaving the beanie as he stutters out a constant stream of apologies. "Thsorry, 'm fufkcing sorry, jushtth give me my hat back, ohg god pleatheh I just want it back, 'm shthtorry b-please." Cronus and Kurloz exchange another look, before Cronus wiggles the hat around. Mituna's gaze follows it, and Kurloz has to fight the urge to laugh at how much like a dog with a treat the dude looks. 

Meanwhile, Cronus is very confused. "Wvhat the fuck are ya then? And fuck no, wve're not givwin your beanie back." At that, Mituna's eyes widen, and his apologies get even more pathetic, at least from Cronus's view. He listens, gun slowly inching closer to him as the dude begs. "Look, shut it, alright?" He hisses at him, because hey. He has learned, from many motel stays in the past, that the walls are very, very thin. Surprisingly, Mituna listens, mouth closing as soon as he hears the words.

Cronus breathes out, relieved that he actually obeyed, and starts with his line of questioning. "Okay, so, first off, wvhat the fuckin' hell are you, you the thing that's been killing people?" His tone was harsh, and yeah, he can't say that he didn't kind of enjoy being the boss for once, not being afraid to do whatever the fuck he wanted. Wasn't like Kurloz was gonna chastise him for mistreating a monster.

"Fc-fuck no!" Mituna scrunches his face up, insulted. He was telling the truth earlier, ya know? And he's kinda fucking pissed that the dudes didn't believe him, though, in all honesty, he can't really blame them. He is a monster after all, and his face drops, until his eyes are watering as he stares down at his lap. "'M thorry, I promise to nto do that thit again, just give me my beanie, pleathe." In turn, his shoulders draw into himself, making the 6 foot dude look really small. Truthfully, his thin frame doesn't do much to help that image, giving him a fragile look, a far cry from the overconfident stance from this morning. 

Kurloz looks down at him, mouth curling up into a small smile, before grabbing his head and slamming it into the wall behind him. Mituna stops talking, and closes his eyes slightly, looking dazed. Cronus watches, a small pit of sympathy growing in his stomach. He's had that done to him before, left him feeling dizzy for days, that shit sucked. "Shut the fuck up about the beanie, alright?" Cronus says, crouching in front of him, gun pressing to his chest. "Wvhat the fuck are ya?" Sure, he's not gonna shoot him in the motel, considering that would draw way to much attention, but still. Guns are intimidating.

"An alp." He says, sounding dazed, eyes looking unfocused. "Itht, f-fucking, German or sithome shit, ua know?" Mituna doesn't know, and as soon as he says that, his head is ducking back down. "O-or maybe thwiss? Shit." He mutters, having no idea any more. In all honesty, he hadn't wanted to say what he was, but stupid fucking alp law was compelling him to do whatever the fuck any of these dudes say, in hopes of getting his beanie back. Well, that and the whole knife and gun shit going on.

Kurloz rolls over, grabbing his laptop to look up the lore on whatever the fuck that is. He's never heard of it before, but almost everything had lore, whether it was accurate or not. Meanwhile, Cronus was continuing his line of questioning, asking "So. Wvaht's vwith the beanie? Wvhy're you freakin' out?" Mituna shifts, not really wanting to answer, but alp rules are alp rules, and so he says, quietly as he can manage "It kinda holdthth my power. I g-gotta do anythin to get it back, and I gotstha listen to ya, and thatg shithth scary." Being an alp sucks, and he shrinks back as he sees a small smile worm it's way onto Cronus's face. "Wvait, seriously? No wvay, ya gotta be fuckin vwith me. Kurloz, this shit true?" He asks, because if this is true, that means they have a monster on a leash.

Kurloz looks at him, small grin on his face, a far cry from his usual wide grin, the one that meant that he was amused, no, no this one meant that he was genuinely shocked and surprised at their good fortune, and fuck, Cronus can't help but want to whoop himself. Long as he has hold of the tiny handful of fabric, this bright obnoxious yellow, they have something that apparently has to listen to them. "Dude, wvait, should vwe take him back to the bunker? Hold him there and see wvhat this baby can do?" He says, talking like he would a car. 

Kurloz nods, slow and steady like always, before turning around, knife dropping to the bed as he starts to pack up what little stuff he had. Cronus grins, turning to Mituna and saying in a teasing voice "Stay, stay, good doggie!" Soon enough, the two of them have all their shit packed, and Cronus is grinning, gesturing Mituna into the car. Mituna sits in the backseat, eyes watering as he sticks his head in between his knees.

Cronus and Kurloz whoop slightly as they slide into the front seats, Kurloz starting up the car, already saying praises to his weird ass gods, Cronus pulling out a cig to chew on.  
-  
Meanwhile, across town, a yelp ripples throughout the forest, a woman is thrown to the ground, and blood is splattering across the bushes and ground, a deep chuckle as the creature rips out her throat the only sound coming from the scene. A moment later, the creature stands up, having finally gotten it's fill. They saw the hunters earlier, yes, but there was no sound of them now. Course, they would have to skip town in a while, but for now, they were grabbing another snack on the way. They look down at the woman, tutting softly. Wasn't her fault that she just so happened to be going on a night jog by the woods. She should've skipped, didn't make sense that she was doing that with all the murders going on, but they never did claim to understand humans in any sense. 

In any case, they take one last look at the body, before brushing their bloodied hands on their clothes, making a face at the mess, but oh well, it doesn't really matter, does it? They turn around, walking off back into the night.


	5. Why do we Fuck Up so Much?

Cronus can't help but pull Kurloz in for a smooch, hand tangling with his wild hair in a toothy, reckless kiss, filled with adrenaline and energy, and the way Cronus tugs insistently on his hair promises more to come, but all to soon, Kurloz is pulling away, head jerking towards the shaking, crying mess in the back. Cronus feels another stab of annoyance, which seems to be often around him, and Kurloz feels a hard edge of pity sneak it's way into his chest, almost as if he's being stabbed with a diamond. He shakes it off, starting to drive back to their bunker as Cronus starts to talk to the shocked dude in the back. "Ah, you don' knowv half the stuff vwe're gonna do to you." He says, a satisfied smirk on his face. He's wanted to fuck with this dude for a while, and thought that he would never get the chance to, or at least never get the chance to go all out without being called a monster, but hey, it doesn't count if it's on a _literal_ monster!

Mituna shudders, head still between his knees as his eyes tears up, quickly spilling over onto his bare face, feeling so naked and helpless without his beanie. He can't even transform or run away, and it sucks. 

Kurloz quickly turns on some of his weird ass music, fingers quietly drumming on the steering wheel as Cronus hums, rolling down the window as he chews on a cigarette, almost thinking about lighting it. That certainly wouldn't be a waste, people smoke to celebrate, right? But as soon as he thinks it, he throws the thought out. 

It stays like that for a while, just the sound of music and tapping, accompanied by soft crying and even softer chewing and humming. Kurloz smiles as the edge of pity worms it's way out of his heart, he didn't need to feel bad for the kid in the back. Still though, he can't help but glance at him from the front mirror, seeing the now asleep dude breathe evenly, and what the fuck brain, what are you doing? He shoves out the thoughts, instead focusing on how annoying Cronus's chewing was, and how much he wanted to wipe that stupid grin off his stupid face. Ah, yes, familiarity, that's what he's going with right now.

-  
They're not that far from the bunker in the first place, considering the fact that they usually just tend to take the cases next to them, leaving the rest of this hellscape they call home to the others. Cronus yawns, straightening up in the chair as he looks at the entrance to the bunker in front of them. "Alright, wvhat the fuck are vwe gonna do about that?" He asks, jerking his head back to the dude in the back. 

Kurloz just grabs the hat from Cronus's pocket, waving it about with his usual expression on his face, the one that said 'How in the world did the messiah's make such a useless idiot?' Eh, whatever, not for him to question the messiahs decisions to stick him with such a motherfucker. He looks over toward Mituna, and with a small smile, says "Wake up." 

With that, Mituna jolts, mismatched eyes opening up wide as he breathes hard, looking around. Kurloz jerks his head toward their bunker, and even though he's grumbling under his breath, Mituna stands, and walks towards it, Cronus and Kurloz in front of him, opening the door. It's a large place, a big opening as soon as you walk in, going down stairs. Off to the side, Mituna can see a few hallways, one of which has different walls than the other, maybe a different wall paper? But, from what he can see, the designs are like, hella fucking intricate, it looks to be handpainted.

He's caught outta his observations by Cronus snapping his fingers. "Alright, freak, get in 'ere." He says, gesturing toward a hallway, one that seemed longer than the others, heading downward. He ducks his head down, though he does grumble, that order apparently wearing off, as he walks. "F-fucckin, fuck you'll all, ai, uhh, fkcicn, shit." He goes into the room, tangled hair slightly filling his vision as he looks around. 

There's a weird circle thingy, something Mituna hadn't seen before, and in the middle of it, a chair. He jolts as there's a hand on his shoulder, and he looks up to see the taller dude, the one with the long ass poofy hair, and he points towards the chair, and yeah, Mituna doesn't need to be told twice. He sits down, curling his long ass legs back up to his chest, trying to make himself as small as possible, so that maybe they will look over and forget about him, not hurt him. 

Kurloz huffs, and pushes his legs down, pulling his arms onto the sides of the chair, and straps them down, quickly turning around. Dude's so, not small, that's not the right word for it, just. Defenseless. Makes a brother feel guilty. He turns to Cronus, who had followed them in, as if to say 'What now, dude?' 

Cronus just grins, and takes a deep breath, as if ready to list all the horrific shit that they were gonna do to this dude, when his phone rings, breaking the silence. "Wvhat the fuck?" He mutters, pulling out his phone and answering it, hand going up to rub at his face as he talks. "Right, no, fuck, cmon, vwe ju-...Sure, I can make it." He sighs, looking to Kurloz. "So tough to be me, dude, wvhat wvith all these cats lining up for my help. Porrim's got a rogue vampire nest dowvn south, needs my help." Porrim was actually a vampire herself, as Cronus had found out after trying to get into her pants, but she wasn't all that bad, and in return for her life, she would hunt along sometimes. 

Kurloz just grins, having always liked Porrim. She worked in a hospital, occasionally taking old blood from their stock, and while weirdly morbid, he thought she was cool. He blinks as him, questioning.

"Yeah, I, fuck, I gotta go dude, you stay here, make sure this fucker doesn't break out." He says, almost brushing his hair away from his face, but no, he worked hard on that shit that morning, he wasn't gonna mess with it just because he was frustrated.

Kurloz shrugs, cause yeah, with the beanie, he's not gonna have a problem with getting this guy to not escape. He steps outside though, Cronus following him, and wooo, another smooch. Full of them today, eh, Cronus? It's been a while though, they've been busy, and so he's just doing this to sate himself until he has enough time to find a cute cat to bring back to a motel. 

Kurloz grins at him, big and nasty, and Cronus smiles back, slapping him on the shoulder, before going to grab his bag that he hadn't even gotten a chance to unpack, and walk out the door, grumbling to himself all the way. Before he leaves, he calls out "Nowv, don' hurt him more than ya need to, alright? Leavwe somethin for me, keep him alive."

Kurloz waves a hand, already going to grab a book, indicating that, yes, he had heard him, and sure, he'll try, but in all honesty, he doesn't give a shit. Cronus sighs, muttering about how he'll be back soon, and then the bunker is quiet, other than the sound of screaming and the soft sound of pages turning, Kurloz settling in for a long night.


	6. Fouled-up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Violence, like, fighting and all that jazz.

Cronus huffs, singing along to a tune he had made up, one of those long, lilting ones, where you can just make up the words as you go along. He never was all that good with rhymes, but eh, music doesn't need to rhyme, ya know? Long as the words aint half bad, he figures it's good.

He's on an empty side road, though he knows that soon enough, he'll be driving onto a busier road, since vamps seem to love cities where dead or missing people isn't all that rare. He opens up his phone, deciding to shoot a quick text while it's still pretty empty.

[Ey, dude, just wanted to say] He loves the fact that his stupid accent didn't make it's way to his typing. [Should probably rough him up a bit, just so he doesn't get any ideas.] That's it, no 'byes' or 'good lucks', he's just tossing the phone in the empty seat next to him, going back to idly singing.

Kurloz hums to himself, still reading the same book. He wasn't sure how long Cronus would be gone, he never was, since the motherfucker usually ended up taking several weeks to do something simple, or got something relatively complicated done in a day. Frustratingly unpredictable, but eh, he dealt with the cards the messiahs had given him.  
Normally, when Cronus wasn't there, it was quiet, and he painted, and prayed, and read, all his favourite shit that Cronus and the noise he made didn't really allow. It was only because of that that the entire bunker wasn't covered in varying colors, purples and blues and black swirls, white and red being freckled over the designs.

However, the screaming just hadn't stopped. He's not sure how the skinny degraded shitbeast all chained up has been able to keep up an unending screech for so long, but it's fucking annoying. He closes the book with a huff, placing it on his seat as he stands up, stretching out, before heading down to where the kid was being kept.

He had gotten the text from Cronus, and honestly? At that time, he just hadn't planned on doing anything, simply because he couldn't be assed. But now, his head hurts, and all he wants is to shove Mituna's face into the cement, see how pretty he screams with no tongue, no teeth, blood filling his lungs- But also, Cronus said to leave some for him, and that they should take him out for a test drive. So.

He opens the door, and the screeching abruptly stops. He looks at him, and his heterochromatic eyes are red and puffy, his face an unflattering tomato color. He closes the door behind him, and walks up to the dude. "Shut up." He says simply, and yeah, he's not gonna leave just yet, seeing as he has no idea if this dude is gonna listen to him. 

He gets a raspberry to the face for his troubles, and the dude starts talking, much to his irritation. "D-dudue, fufkiccnng, alright, I kniwwoow 'm like, your riisoner n shit, buttubt fuckcin, do y-" He's cut off as Kurloz slaps him, effectively shutting him up for all of half a second before he continues, and god, this guy is stupid, isn't he? He doesn't listen as the other babbles, saying something about how unfair this all was, how he wanted to go home.

If he was in the same mood he had been in the car, he would have felt pity for him, his heart would have twisted and turned at the pleading note of the mans voice. But he wasn't, and so it didn't.

Instead, he merely started humming as he turned around, making sure the door was closed tightly as he thought. He wasn't a very violent person, or, he didn't do violent things out of violence, rather interest. His gaze softens as he thinks about his childhood friend, Meulin, the daughter of a retired huntress. He didn't really like that place all that much, no matter how many kids she had staying with her, she would drag them all to church. He still remembers the preachers, though one in particular always stood out for him, some loud dude who always made the sermons go long past what they were supposed to. He always suspected they were dating, but he was never sure. 

Anyway. The house was always crawling with both cats and kids, and so, he thought that no one would miss a few new born kittens, assuming that people would just think they crawled off or something. He hadn't expected Meulin to be so upset. In an effort to calm her, since oddly enough, he hated seeing her upset for reasons he couldn't quite discern, he showed her the mass grave he had dug for what was left of the cats bodies. 

He wasn't welcome in the house after that, and when he did see her, all she offered was a few small smiles every now and again. 

Back to his point, it was reminding him of when he had killed those kittens. Something about enforcing his will on another living thing, whether it was monster or animal, staining the ground with beautiful hues of color and even dedicating it all to the messiahs. Sure, he knew it was messed up, but it was only truly bad when he started taking it out on humans. 

Monsters like the one he now had in his possession, however, were _entirely_ fair game.  
-  
Mituna flinches as the dude turns back around after staring at the locked door for who knows how long. Without his beanie to hide behind, his expressive eyes were free to view, and they were filled with terror as the dude crouches in front of him, grabbing his face and forcing him to stare at him. He closes his eyes, trying to wrest his chin free as he squirms.

"If you don't open your motherfucking eyes, I'll cut the eyelids off for you." Something about the absolute calm in his voice convinces him to open his eyes, which were quickly shining with tears. 

"P-pleashtheh don' hurt me, dudue, I swehtswear I didn' dodo anythitng, ccmcpon, jsutht, let me go, I'll-" The guy puts a finger to his lips, and Mituna obediently quiets, trembling slightly.

He stands back up, and Mituna feels relieved for a minute, thinking that he was going to leave, when his fist is slamming into Mituna's cheek, and all there is is a stinging pain, and he feels something wet and hot on his cheek, and alright, turns out he was wearing rings, and now Mituna is bleeding. Before he even has a chance to react, there's another punch, and then a kick to his stomach, and fuck, the dude's wearing boots, how the fuck is that fair, and he feels sick, tears falling unbidden down his face.

Kurloz stands back, seemingly admiring his work, grabbing his face again. Mituna tenses, ready for pain, but instead of doing anything, he just holds his face, watching his reactions. He stays like that for a while, Mituna's crying slowing as he gets more confused than hurt, and then all of a sudden he's stepping up, and walking out, leaving the door open behind him, and before he knows it, he's back, and with some supplies for the cut on his cheek, spreading something that cools and stings in tandem before putting a bandaid on it. 

Mituna stays silent, just entirely too confused to say anything, and scared that if he does, Kurloz will snap out of whatever fucking mood he's in and start hurting him again. Soon enough, he's done, and he walks out without a second glance at Mituna, leaving him entirely confused as to what his thought process was in that entire situation.  
-  
Kurloz closes the door behind him, yawning, though he is tense. Yeah, he's alright with hurting monsters and animals, but this dude seems like neither, he's entirely too human for Kurloz's code of 'don't be a fucking dick and go to jail' to be alright with hurting him without him doing anything. It was weird, but he almost felt bad for what he did, for the tears that were shed by the smaller dude, and by god was he small. He wasn't short, no, but something about him just seemed so small and vulnerable. The chains may have something to do with it, but still.

He checks his phone, looking at the time, and. Huh, it's been a few hours since they've taken him back to the bunker. Dude's probably hungry, or thirsty at the very least. He shakes that thought from his head though, wouldn't do any good if he started going soft on every human looking creature that made their way into his presence.

Still though, he's hungry, and still too worked up to go back to reading or meditating. He quickly heads to the large kitchen. It was well used by both Cronus and Kurloz, oddly enough. After a winter where they had been snowed in, they both learned how to cook, since nearly starving again didn't seem very fun. Cronus was better at actually cooking than Kurloz was, making meals and actual food. Meanwhile, Kurloz was content to survive off sweets and nearly raw meat, still bleeding.

As such, he grabs a slab of meat, he doesn't know what, probably chicken breast, and he's probably going to be bitched at later by Cronus, cause he certainly didn't buy that shit, but he doesn't care. He sprinkles some random shit over it, just stuff that smelled good, and stuck it in the oven, sitting down at the table and deciding to meditate, hopefully calm down, until it was done.  
\- 

Mituna shifts, trying to find a position that didn't make the knobbly balls of his spine dig into the chair, but only succeeds in scraping the bone against the wood, and he whines, pained and hopeless. He's uncomfortable, he's tired, he's hungry as all hell, and it's not even alp hungry, it's human hungry, which means a growling stomach that he can't even bend down to shut up without putting his back in even more pain.

He jolts as the door opens again, it'd been, what, an hour, maybe two? It's hard to keep track of time without any windows, but his nose twitches as he smells food, and his stomach growls even louder, and oh no, he's got his beanie in his hands.

Just the sight of it is enough to make his stomach hurt and his hands clench, cause it is his, godamnit, not some jackass hunters, he probably doesn't even know anything, stupid, stupid, stupid. 

His mouth abruptly closes, and he realizes that one, he had said the majority of that out loud, and two, the hunter, now with the beanie in his hands, had told him to shut up and stay still. The restraints on his arms and legs are opened, and he can't even rub his wrists, he can't fucking move, but that doesn't stop him from glaring daggers

Kurloz stares at him, decidedly unimpressed, before laying a plate of chicken on the floor in front of him. "You allergic?" He questions, Mituna shaking his head in response. They sit like that for a while,before Kurloz seemingly remembers that, oh, he told him he couldn't move. "You can eat the chicken now." 

Mituna fucking launches himself at that chicken, tearing it open with his hands, and yeah, it kinda burns, but he's fineee, what's important now is getting the chicken down his throat, and drinking from the plastic cup of water Kurloz had offered. However, he starts sputtering, choking, because what the fuck is that lemonade. Small alp fact, lemons are a big nopearino for them. It varied from alp to alp, some had allergic reactions, some just physically couldn't get it down. For Mituna, it was the fact that it tasted absolutely disgusting, and he ends up sputtering over himself, getting it in his hair and everything.

"F-fuckcicn, what the fuckkkk." He wheezes out, clawing at his throat, and, is that motherfucker laughing? Not hugely, not like Mituna's own cackles, but his shoulders are shaking in a sort of silent laughter, and he is just. So fucking done with all this shit.

"Dick." He mutters, eating some more of the chicken, struggling to get the taste out of his mouth, sharp teeth happily digging into the meat, though, he woulda liked it to be a little more cooked. He finishes, wiping his sleeve across his mouth, drawing his legs up to his chest, watching Kurloz warily, face still aching from earlier.

"You done?" Kurloz questions, and Mituna nods. "Alright. So." He opens up his phone, flicking through some of the lore he had read up on. "True or false, gonna be a fun game. Didja kill those people? Tell the truth." 

Mituna rolls his eyes, cause he's been saying the truth the entire time, "F-fuckcin, no, I didn't kill anaybodyd, I don' hurtht people, no matter what the shithtitty lore sayyhtt, half that stuff is bull, right?"  
-  
Oh. Well then. He feels slightly worse for what he did earlier. Yeah, he's a monster, but it would seem he is not the monster they are looking for. Damn. Well, he aint gonna set him free, one, he'd probably send some of his monster friends after him, and they don't wanna fuck with that shit, and two, according to the lore, he can do some pretty powerful things, long as they have his tarnkappe. Still though.

He feels like he should message Cronus about this, but. He doesn't feel right tying the dude back up. So, he orders, holding the beanie "Stay in here, no matter what, less there's a fire going on." With that, he opens the door, closing and locking it behind him, just to be sure, before pulling up his messages with Cronus. 

[Brother, I don't think he's the one who was killing all those motherfuckers. Think we may have besmirched a brethrens fine name.] It's late, so he doesn't expect him to answer back, probably deep in a nest or being lazy, he doesn't know, but he needs a moment to think about what to do with the creature in their storage room. 

He decides that bringing him blankets or anything of that sort is a step too far, and so he happily goes back to his room, mostly minimalist, a bookcase in the corner, an easel, and a little corner dedicated to his messiahs. However, the star of his room is his bed. It's pretty small, just two twins shoved together, but he has many blankets, and the shit is so motherfucking soft, he practically sinks down when he lowers his head to rest.

He closes his eyes, comforted by the silence, the screams having stopped. Maybe this won't turn out too badly.


	7. Chapter 7

There is light streaming through the shitty motel curtains, and Cronus is whining at the brightness of it, ducking his head under the blankets. He'd been up all night helping Porrim with leads, posing as a poor shmuck following her around, mostly to watch her back while she questioned all sorts of people. She had joked that it wasn't all that different from how it normally was, and he had rolled his eyes, sullenly chewing on a cigarette. 

Eventually though, he has to get up, and he rolls over, grabbing his phone from it's spot on the dresser, seeing the message Kurloz had sent at...4 am? The fuck was he doing up at 4 am? He reads, and he's huffing, entirely too tired to deal with that shit. Kurloz was usually right about that shit, but still. It'd just be so much easier if the monster was the monster, and he didn't have to deal with just kidnapping something for the sake of it. 

He gets up, stretching with a groan. Shitty motel beds. However, the shower only smells a tiny bit like mildew, and so he wanders into there, putting off replying as much as he could.  
-  
Kurloz is staring at his phone, frowning. Aint a thing for Cronus to not reply, he's fine with that, guys too stupid to let himself get killed. However, he would actually like to know if Cronus knew anything else about this situation, ya know? Never hurt to be informed, but shit, he's good to go by himself. Specially since he's got the beanie, case anything goes south.

He gets up, having changed and showered long ago, and is now walking towards the room where they're keeping the dude. He opens the door, and is greeted by the sight of Mituna sleeping, legs curled up to his chest against one of the further walls. He feels a bit bad about the bandaid, but whatever, wasn't his fault he was misinformed. 

He had the beanie in his hands, and so he states, calmly and closing the door behind him "Wake up, motherfucker, got more questions for you." 

It was pretty annoying that he had to talk to this dude, but honestly, as soon as Cronus gets back, he can talk to the motherfucker, and Kurloz can go back to being a silent motherfucker like he likes.

Mituna jolts, and is sitting up soon enough, eyes fixing onto the beanie as soon as he understands what he's seeing, and he says, without taking his eyes off the beanie "Wassaa d-dude." Kurloz rolls his eyes, and tucks it into his pocket. He couldn't understand what it was like for Mituna to want a fucking hat so much, it was weird. He himself didn't have all that many items of attachment, didn't do a boy good, ya know? 

He decides to get right to business, and asks "How many more creatures do you know?" Mituna flinches, and tries to clamp his lips shut, but Kurloz doesn't fret, knowing he'll spill eventually.

"I, uhh, f-fucckkcin, a lot, the woodhtht are filled, and we even have a smalt d-dragon who works at the gas station sometimeth, and there'ht a werewolf baker, and a lot." He shuts up eventually, having filled the seemingly arbitrary requirements for the hat to be satisfied, and fuck, does he look guilty. Like a kicked dog, mismatched eyes closed shut as he curses himself.

Kurloz nods, thinking for a moment about the implications of that. Small town, filled with mostly nonhumans. Knowing that, he was less surprised about there being a string of murders around there.

Finally, he asks "If I let you come out, I won't have to keep ordering you to not try and kill me and shit, right?" He's stretching out, back audibly popping. He was young, yeah, but ages of slouching down when on stakeouts had left him with more than a few back problems. That and he slept on a huge pile of random shit.

-  
Was. Was this dude serious? Mituna had never been kidnapped before, or Tunanapped, or whatever the term would be, but he had seen movies, and he was pretty sure this wasn't how this was supposed to be.

He certainly wasn't going to complain or argue though, even if his walls were still up. Being kidnapped and being beaten will do that to you. Speaking of, his stomach still ached something terrible, god.

He nods, quick enough he looks like a bobblehead. Theres a harsh sound as his hand slams on the wall for support, wobbling and off balance as he clambers to his feet. 

Course, there's the dick in front of him, moving all fluidly. Such a douchebag, bet he thinks he's so much better than him. He frowns, but then Kurloz is opening the door, and he takes small, tiny steps, not believing that he would actually let him out.

Kurloz can't help the small upward twist of his lips as he watches Mituna. He was just kinda glad that he didn't try to boltor tackle him as soon as he opened the door, but hey, he's allowed to find whatever he wants adorable. 

Anywho. He's not really gonna push his luck, and quickly has his arm in a vicelike grip as he walks towards the main room, before shoving Mituna down into a seat at the table. 

He had made sure to lock the doors beforehand, he wasn't stupid, and along with that, he's taking out the beanie, heart twisting again at how Mituna's eyes widened, still hopeful, before speaking slowly. "Don't leave this motherfucking room without my say-so, and don't fuck anything up, myself included."

He can see Mituna's body tense, as if he was going to try and disobey, before relaxing, even though his expression hadn't changed. Weird, he'll wanna test shit like that. For now though, gotta get that brother reading, telling him what he knows. 

He grabs a book off the table, dropping it in front of him. "So, how accurate is this lore?" 

Mituna stares at him, mismatched eyes wide and unbelieving. "D-dicick, fuckin, we don' have like, bookclib meeting the, I don't know shit botu dick bout them."

Kurloz holds up the beanie threateningly, and Mituna panics. "I'm tserious! It's rude, like, not thupposed to ask an Asian perhtson bout ninjas, ya jsut don do it." Mituna never really cared about manners and all that, but when you're facing something that could potentially kill you, relatively easily in fact, he tended to mind his p's and Q's.

Well. There goes that plan. And there he was, thinking it was all a good idea. Damnit. He sits down, across from Mituna, who's flinching at every movement he does. Can't blame him though, could he? 

"Aight, brother, I'll believe you. Then tell me about yourself. What the hell does an alp fill their days with in a shithole town like that?" Other than a few touristy spots, there was almost nothing in there.

Mituna was bristling at the term though. "Ithth a rad pace, okay? Eveyroneth really nice, even if they're not...ya know, and even though m weird they let me work at the arcade."

His brows furrow at the word weird. "Hell, course you're weird. No natural thing is gonna poof into smoke. Messiah's above wouldn't have wanted it that way."

Tuna stares at him, and decides to say nothing about the 'messiahs'. "N-no, like, I had a thin when I wahts younger. Bad thin, m-meashted me up in the pan." He lifts a hand to his head, finger making a circling motion. "Wnent f-flippin doolally for a while, cuaythe they didn't know what wahth wrong. Still kinda do, but we found the mdeth that work so." He shrugs, and wow, okay, Kurloz has nothing to say to that.

Mituna doesn't take notice though, just keeps babbling away. "A-anywath, since m not the murder dude, can ya let me g-go? Fuckin, shtwear I won turn ya in, cause then I'd get c-caught too, and ya guys are alright, well, you are, when you're not hitting me, whievevr the ithr dude waht was a dick though." Has Mituna forgotten Cronus's name? Yes, yes he has.

"Can't do that, brother." He says smoothly. "One thing to not kill you, another to let you go." Mituna frowns, and there's a weird noise, a mix between a huff and a soft growl, and jesus, yeah, okay, weird. Mituna starts babbling again, and instead of just zoning out like he usually does when people start blabbing, he does actually pay a tiny bit of attention. Totally just to hear if he lets something slip, yes, not because he's a little interested how this motherfucker entertains himself, dude seems way too hyperactive for such a small place. 

Totally not because he does get a little chuckle out of him as he recounts the time he tried to steal a tiny little hunk of gold from a dragons hoard, and ended up getting chased and yelled at, cause then they didn't show up for work for a week, they were so sad, and how he ended up begrudging returning it, along with a few of those chocolate gold coins.

He told himself it was because this dude was interesting, that's all, not even all that cool or anything just. Interesting. He does have to take his focus away from the conversation when his pocket started buzzing, and he yanks it out, stupid tight goth pants, why did such a hard look to maintain be his aesthetic, and _oh._

It's Cronus, and he opens it up, silent as he hears the sound of the wind, the sound of the road, Cronus breathing deep. "Hey, cat, so. Cleared that nest out, Porrim got a little roughed up, and I did too, 'm alright though. Also, there wvas another murder in the area, and it doesn't match any a' the others. So." His voice was strained, attempting to sound confident, but there was just enough hesitation that he feels that he is indeed a little bit more than roughed up.

Not up to him if the motherfucker wants to play tough though, so even as he smiles, just a bit, he says "Miss you," and it comes out "Sounds good, brother, talking to the kid now. Hurry back here, need another set of eyes on this motherfucker," but he knows it means the same thing, and he breathes out as Cronus hangs up on him, turning his gaze back to Mituna. 

Eyes wide, hair everywhere, motherfucker was tugging on his heartstrings again. Like seeing those commercials for animal shelters, it just made ya sad. So, he stands, stretching a lil, and asks "Want some breakfast?"


	8. This Shit Sucks

Cronus can barely focus as he drives along, mostly on an auto pilot. Even the radio is off, despite this being one of the few times he can listen to his music without Kurloz getting up and switching it.

He doesn't know what the fuck to do with the k-, no. Mituna. His stupid fucking name was Mituna, which he'd have to get used to, considering they were keeping the little shit. He's tempted to get back there, and just sulk, play up his injuries like he had on the phone. That was something he was relatively decent at, acting, from his childhood of lying. Least over the phone. His face did tend to give him away sometimes. 

And not only that, but. He thought he saw something when they were finishing off the last of the vampires. It had distracted him enough that the monster had gotten a swipe at him, least till Porrim cut its head off. Though he had sworn up and down to Porrim that it was real, and they had checked the place up and down after the bodies were all disposed of, there wasn't anything. God, just what he needs, to be seeing shit.

He rolls his eyes, though he is a bit happy with himself as he turns onto a familiar street.  
-  
Mituna sat, eating a cinnamon roll with a small smile, fully focused on it. Kurloz had given him two, on a plate, though there was no silverware, which he would have been sad about if he didn't eat almost everything with his hands anyway. On top of that, since Kurloz said they weren't planning on letting him go anytime soon, he had even given him a small blanket. 

Mituna knows he shouldn't be feeling happy about that, should still be scared and angry that he was hurt and kidnapped, but what can he say, his moods are easily influenceable when he's off his meds, and right now, he's happy as all hell. Kurloz is sitting on the opposite side of the room, reading something bout hoodoo or whatever, and Mituna babbles to him between bites. Can't stand silence, never has been able to, and so he fills it.

Least till there's a loud thud, and he's cut off, frosting smeared over his mouth.  
-  
He walks in, and what the fuck. Cinnamon and warmth are curling around each other, which is odd, considering this place usually smells like oil and paint. He decides to sit down, least till Kurloz and the k-Mituna walk in, Kurloz hardly reacting to the blood on the lower half of his white shirt, while Mituna's eyes widen, and he almost gags at the scent of blood.

He barks a harsh laugh at that, before looking down. He had only bled through his bandages a little bit, most of the blood being from earlier, so it wasn't so bad, all he needed was some of the painkillers they kept stocked on. Most days, he wasn't a fan of alcoholic drinks to take away pain, he saw many older hunters depend on that for far too long, and all the nasty effects it had on them.

"Dude, you made the monster cinnamon rolls, but not me?" He whines, rolling his eyes.

Kurloz shrugs in response. "He was sad we didn't have honeycombs." Kurloz was tempted to add that he wasn't a monster, he was a kid, least from what he could tell, but eh. 

Meanwhile, Mituna was thinking about how he could escape, and subsequently getting a headache from it. It wasn't too bad to think about disobeying, just gave him a nasty headache, and his eyebrows are scrunching together.

"Anywvay, dudes, vwampires wveren't too bad, just wvas a bit off my game. Be good as newv in a fevw days." He spouts, tapping on the table, before standing, though he winces a little bit. "Gonna go wvatch shovws, you gonna ditch the monster and come vwatch vwith me?" Accents are hard. They're hard and no one understands.

Kurloz shakes his head, smiling a lil. "Nah, brother, Tuna'll come with us, won't be a lick of trouble, will ya?" The taller man asks Mituna, who nods vehemently, dying for some entertainment. Actually, dying for a lot of things. Like a shower. Or his medication. 

"The fuck? No, wve'ere not vwatchin' TWV vwith a fuckin' monster. No wvay, no howv." It's what they with Porrim, when they were trying to convince her to be chill with them. Sure, the first few days were filled with attempts at bargaining, and after that, threats of violence, but when she saw that they weren't gonna kill her, just had some questions at a vampire nest she was hanging around once they saw that she herself wasn't one of the bad ones, they had allowed privileges, eventually allowing her to go and live life again.

They eventually made some sort of a friendship, though she refused to come back to the bunker once she had left it. Can't blame her. So, that made this whole thing about Kurloz wanting to keep the mon-Mituna around. 

"Then no TV." He says simply, Mituna looking wideyed and confused, and who started to stutter out "U-uhh, fuckcin, c-cmon dudue, p-" He's cut off as he's slapped by Cronus, who's frowning.

"Shut the fuck up, s'not up to you to decide." 

He moves to hit him again, rough him up, let out some tension he'd been holding in his body, seeing as this kid couldn't fight back, not like Kurloz, when they tussled, he usually ended up with a decent amount of bites and scratches, though he returned a fair bit of them.

However, Kurloz steps in front of him, chin up and confident as he simply glances at him, as if asking 'You really wanna do that again' in that weird, mute way of his. "Fuckin', get out of my wvay, not like the little prick matters any." He shoves him, to which Kurloz shoves him back, knocking him on his ass, and when he looks up, he's rocking that stupid fucking grin, the smug one, not that outsiders could pick apart his nearly identical expressions. He knew though, and he knows that even as Kurloz helps Mituna to his feet, he's gloating, and so he spins him away from Mituna, punching him.

Kurloz takes it in stride though, merely looking down at him, to which Cronus growls, shoving him again, trying to get Kurloz to react in any way except that shitty grin of his, when he bends down, wincing as the edges of his wound pull, and yeah, alright, he has to sit down, exhaling harshly as he looks down, and then Kurloz is there, with stitches and disinfectant, and he hisses as he pours it on, the sound of bubbling ringing in his ears.

He closes his eyes as Kurloz threads the needle through his skin, slowly closing up the wound, cinching them tight, cutting the thread off, replacing the bandage on it. Finally, Kurloz is maneuvering him onto his side, holding out some water and some pills, presumably more painkillers, which is good, cause the ones he did have were slowly wearing off.

Meanwhile, Mituna is shaking in the background, cause oh god, blood, and being hit, and oh god, Kurloz was nice, but now that Cronus was back, he was gonna fucking die, wasn't he? Oh jesus, he shouldn't have relaxed, he can't breathe, fuck, he feels like he's being choked.

Kurloz leans down, presumably giving Cronus a sweet kiss, before turning to Mituna, gripping his face, turning it this way and that, much to his confusion. "Whyy why y-uyou touching me?" He would have thought he was cool with him being hurt, but when Kurloz shrugs, he just goes along with it, too scared to speak up and say he might prefer not being touched right over the very tender spot, ya know?

Kurloz, seemingly satisfied, lets him go, picking up Cronus and bringing him to a hallway to the right, shooting Mituna a very obvious 'stay there or I'll break your legs' look, and he freezes, nodding, relaxing a bit when Kurloz gives him a slow smile, and so he stands there, looking about, feeling sick and bruised. 

Goddamn, this shit sucks.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction! I really hope you enjoyed it, and if you could leave some comments down below, that would really motivate me to write some more!
> 
> Also, jesus christ I have no idea how to write for Cronus and Kurloz, but I tried. 
> 
> Next chapter will hopefully be out soon!


End file.
